Harold Kenneth Douthit Jr., 87, of Sandusky, who died Oct. 21 from complications of long-term diabetes, was a newspaper and magazine publisher, computer-programming innovator, art and book collector, world traveler and a boxer.

A student of history and creativity, Douthit knew all about Leon Battista Alberti, the 15th-century Italian artist, architect, poet, priest, linguist, philosopher and cryptographer who developed the ideal of the “Renaissance man,” submitting that “a man can do all things if he will.”

Douthit didn’t speak of himself in such fashion. According to a 1979 feature story documenting his Northern Ohio publishing successes, Douthit “has a local press run of 122,000 weekly papers and yet he’s truly incognito when it comes to fame.”

Halloween is quickly approaching, which for many people, means parties and celebrating with alcohol.

There are still far too many people who think they can drive after drinking. The Lucas County Traffic Safety Program and the law enforcement agencies of the Lucas County OVI Task Force are reminding all partygoers that Buzzed Driving is Drunk Driving.

If you have been drinking and feel “buzzed” you should not be behind the wheel.

Gwen Neundorfer, coordinator of the Traffic Safety Program, reminds Halloween partiers, “The risks are not worth it and the consequences are too serious. In 2013, 11 of the 31 crashes in Lucas County involved an impaired driver. From January through September 2014, 46 percent of the fatal crashes involved an impaired driver and 12 people lost their lives in these crashes. It is up to drivers to make responsible decisions so these needless deaths don’t continue to happen.”

When incumbent District 46 State Legislator Michael Sheehy got his chance to speak to the Oregon-Northwood Rotary Club Wednesday, he spoke mostly about invasive algae issues in Lake Erie.

Sheehy, a Democrat, has a completely different approach to the algae issue than his Republican challenger, 34-year-old Andrew Blazsik.

Sheehy is for stricter regulation, noting with a fact sheet he presented to the Rotary that 11 million people derive their drinking water from Lake Erie. In 2011, invasive blue-green algae covered 1,900 square miles of the lake and the “dead zone,” where they is not enough oxygen for fish to survive, in the middle basin of Lake Erie increased to 1,544 square miles.

Sheehy’s fact sheet further stipulates that 9,576,624 animals in the Maumee watershed produce over 12 billion pounds of manure per annum with no sewage disposal plant required. Also, 422 million pounds of fertilizer are put into the Maumee watershed per annum. He adds that the Maumee River is the largest river flowing into the Great Lakes. Sheehy says his facts are from symposiums he has attended.